Samuel Beckett
Digital Manuscript Project
L'Innommable / The Unnamable

MS-HRC-SB-5-10

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Segment 1

[1396] it is not that they wish for me.[1397] For it has happened to me many
times already, without their having granted me as much as a brief
sick leave, among the worms, before resurrecting me.
[1398] But who knows,
this time, what the future holds in store.
[1399] That qua sentient and
thinking being I should be going downhill fast is in
any case an excellent thing.

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Segment 2

[1400] Perhaps some day some gentleman,
chancing to pass my way with his sweet heart on his arm, at the
precise moment when my last is favouring me with a final taste of
the flight of time, will exclaim, loud enough for me to hear, Oh
I say, this man is ailing, we must call an ambulance.
[1401] Thus with a
single stone, when all seemed lost, the two rare
birds.
[1402] I shall be dead, but I shall have lived.

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Segment 3

[1403] Unless one is to
suppose him victim of a hallucination.
[1404] Yes, to dispel all doubt
his betrothed would need to say, You are right, my love, he looks
as if he were going to throw up.
[1405] Then I'd know for certain,[1406] and
giving up the ghost be born at last, to the sound perhaps of one
of those hiccups which mar alas too often the solemnity of the trépas
passing.

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Segment 4

[1407] When Mahood I once knew a doctor who held that scientifically speaking the latest
breath could only issue from the fundament and this [] therefore, rather than
the mouth, the orifice to which the family should present the mirror,
before opening the will.
[1408] However this may be, and without
dwelling further on these macabre details, it is certain I was
grievously mistaken in supposing that death in itself could be
regarded as evidence, or even a strong presumption, in favour of
a preliminary life.

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Segment 5

[1409] And I for my part have no longer the least
desire to leave this world, in which they keep trying to foist me,
with[]out some kind ofassurance that I was really there, such as a
kick in the arse for example, or a kiss, the nature of the attention
is of little importance, provided I cannot be suspected of being
its author.

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Segment 6

[1410] No, not the least desire, for I know it serves no pur-
pose, changes nothing, puts an end to nothing.
[1411] But let two third
parties remark me, there, before my eyes, and I'll take care of
the rest.
How all becomes clear and simple when one opens an eye

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Segment 7

[1412] How all becomes clear and simple when one opens an eye

Transcription
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